Commuters exit the new Kalundborg East Station, which serves the Novo Nordisk production complex in Kalundborg, on Dec. 11.
Photographer: Carsten Snejbjerg/BloombergNovo Nordisk’s Hiring Binge Leaves Danish Firms Starved of Labor
The maker of weight-loss and diabetes drugs has supercharged the Danish economy — but other businesses complain that’s left them struggling to hire staff.
Business was good for Brian Larsen’s car service shop in Kalundborg, a coastal town west of Copenhagen, but he had to shut it down. With Novo Nordisk A/S in the midst of a rapid hiring spree at its manufacturing hub, just half a mile away, finding staff to keep his small business running became virtually impossible.
By the time he closed Flint Auto last month, some eight years after it first opened, Larsen had lost most of his employees to the Danish maker of the diabetes treatment Ozempic and weight-loss drug Wegovy, for 20% more pay. “I didn’t want to fight anymore,” he said. “The focus went from making cars to constantly looking for employees. We couldn’t meet demand.”